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Connect to SAS Data Sets Data in Ruby


Connect to SAS Data Sets data in Ruby with ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc.

The CData ODBC Driver for SAS Data Sets makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live SAS Data Sets data in Ruby. This article shows how to create a simple Ruby app that connects to SAS Data Sets data, executes a query, and displays the results.

Create an ODBC Connection to SAS Data Sets Data

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Set the following connection properties to connect to your SAS DataSet files:

Connecting to Local Files

  • Set the Connection Type to "Local." Local files support SELECT, INSERT, and DELETE commands.
  • Set the URI to a folder containing SAS files, e.g. C:\PATH\TO\FOLDER\.

Connecting to Cloud-Hosted SAS DataSet Files

While the driver is capable of pulling data from SAS DataSet files hosted on a variety of cloud data stores, INSERT, UPDATE, and DELETE are not supported outside of local files in this driver.

Set the Connection Type to the service hosting your SAS DataSet files. A unique prefix at the beginning of the URI connection property is used to identify the cloud data store and the remainder of the path is a relative path to the desired folder (one table per file) or single file (a single table). For more information, refer to the Getting Started section of the Help documentation.

Installing Ruby and Necessary Gems

If you do not have Ruby installed, refer to the Ruby installation page. With Ruby installed, you will need to install the ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc gems:

gem install dbi gem install dbd-odbc gem install ruby-odbc

Create a Ruby App with Connectivity to SAS Data Sets Data

Create a new Ruby file (for example: SASDataSetsSelect.rb) and open it in a text editor. Copy the following code into your file:

#connect to the DSN require 'dbi' cnxn = DBI.connect('DBI:ODBC:CData SASDataSets Source','','') #execute a SELECT query and store the result set resultSet = cnxn.execute("SELECT name, borough FROM restaurants WHERE cuisine = 'American'") #display the names of the columns resultSet.column_names.each do |name| print name, "\t" end puts #display the results while row = resultSet.fetch do (0..resultSet.column_names.size - 1).each do |n| print row[n], "\t" end puts end resultSet.finish #close the connection cnxn.disconnect if cnxn

With the file completed, you are ready to display your SAS Data Sets data with Ruby. To do so, simply run your file from the command line:

ruby SASDataSetsSelect.rb Writing SQL-92 queries to SAS Data Sets allows you to quickly and easily incorporate SAS Data Sets data into your own Ruby applications. Download a free trial today!

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Download a free trial of the SAS Data Sets ODBC Driver to get started:

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SAS Data Sets Icon SAS Data Sets ODBC Driver

The SAS Data Sets ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from SAS Data Sets, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access SAS Data Sets data like you would a database - read, write, and update through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

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